What's Your Idea Of A Good Time

What does a client actually get from you apart from the plan?

One of the big mistakes that coaches make when it comes to selling what it is that they do

Is they are far too literal.

The reasons that they stay literal are plenty.

It might be that the mechanics of their programme are the things that are easiest to defend and explain: macros, sessions, check-ins, the app.

It might be that they think the result they get people is too slow or not obvious enough

So they sell the plan - because they worry that the outcome they sell isn’t enough to attract people to spend the kind of money they want to charge.

This is an area where I think it’s really, really useful to look into other businesses

Because other businesses have cracked this in a way that very few coaches actually have.

A great example I heard the other day is Heineken.

Their whole mantra is ‘we don’t sell beer, we sell good times.’

And so everyone makes the association of having a good time with their beer.

They’re not trying to convince people on why they should buy their beer because it tastes better or different to everyone else.

(I even recently heard someone who worked for a beer company say that people can’t differentiate from beers in a blind taste test)

So telling people about the taste of it is largely pointless.

There are loads of other examples.

A famous one came from Leo McGivena, an ad man, in a 1969 book, The Marketing Mode.

The line was ‘people don’t want to buy a quarter inch drill, they want a quarter inch hole.’

Because if you look at the chain:

drill → hole → shelf up → tidy room → the feeling of ‘I sorted it’

People want that feeling of ‘I’ve got my shit together’ way more than they want to buy a quarter inch drill.

Name a business that people love - and you will find the story they’re selling them.

Disney don’t sell rides and hotels, they sell magic.

Staff are cast members, they’re not employees.

Harley-Davidson don’t sell motorbikes.

They sell the ability to feel dangerous at the weekend to an accountant because he’s wearing leather and riding a quick motorbike.

Peloton don’t sell the bikes.

They sell a leaderboard and an instructor who says your name

And the feeling that your exercise is part of a group and pushing yourself against like-minded people.

Everywhere we look, there are examples of brands that are doing a great job of selling what they do with stories, status, sensations

And coaches don’t do this.

They sell the plan.

So the more you can lean into what your coaching equivalent of a good time is, the easier it is to put that everywhere.

The easier it is to sell what it is that you do to the people that you want to work with.